The present invention relates to vehicle detectors which detect the passage or presence of a vehicle over a defined area of a roadway. In particular, the present invention relates to a method of vehicle speed measurement using a single inductive sensor of a vehicle detector.
Inductive sensors are used for a wide variety of detection systems. For example, inductive sensors are used in systems which detect the presence of conductive or ferromagnetic articles within a specified area. Vehicle detectors are a common type of detection system in which inductive sensors are used.
Vehicle detectors are used in traffic control systems to provide input data required by a controller to control signallights. Vehicle detectors are connected to one or more inductive sensors and operate on the principle of an inductance change caused by the movement of a vehicle in the vicinity of the inductive sensor. The inductive sensor can take a number of different forms, but commonly is a wire lop which is buried in the roadway and which acts as an inductor.
The vehicle detector generally includes circuitry which operates in conjunction with the inductive sensor to measure changes in inductance and to provide output signals as a function of those inductance changes. The vehicle detector includes an oscillator circuit which produces a oscillator output signal having a frequency which is dependent on sensor inductance. The sensor inductance is in turn dependent on whether the inductive sensor is loaded by the presence of a vehicle. The sensor is driven as a part of a resonant circuit of the oscillator. The vehicle detector measures changes in inductance in the sensor by monitoring the frequency of the oscillator output signal.
Examples of vehicle detectors are shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,943,339 (Koerner et al.) and in U.S. Pat. No. 3,989,932 (Koerner).
A critical parameter in nearly all traffic control strategies is vehicle speed. In most circumstances, traffic control equipment must make assumptions about vehicle speed (e.g., that the vehicle is traveling at the speed limit) while making calculations. Currently there are no devices available that both detect vehicles and measure vehicle speed on a real-time basis. Usually, the device to which the vehicle detector provides its outputs calculates the speed of the detected vehicle. While counter/classifier devices do contain vehicle detectors and are capable of measuring speed, they do not provide calculations to external devices in real time.
A commonly used method of measuring vehicle speed with a single loop inductive sensor is to have the detector make the assumption that all vehicles are the same length. The speed of the vehicle may then be estimated based on the time the vehicle is over the loop. This method uses the following formula: ##EQU1## where, S=speed estimate
AVL=assumed vehicle length PA0 L.sub.loop =loop length PA0 DVD=duration of vehicle detection PA0 k=constant greater than one which depends on loop geometry PA0 t.sub.VD2 =time of vehicle detection at second loop PA0 t.sub.VD1 =time of vehicle detection at first loop
Using this method, the speed estimate for any given vehicle will have an error directly related to the difference of the vehicle's actual length from the of error arising from the use of this method is due to miscalculations of the duration of vehicle detection (DVD). These miscalculations are a function of sensitivity setting, vehicle type, detector scan time, and of the scan time of the external device that is actually making the speed calculations. While this method can provide a relatively accurate measurement of the average vehicle speed, it is inadequate for measurement of individual vehicle speed.
It is desirable to achieve accuracy in the measurement of individual vehicle speed with an error of less than five percent. This degree of accuracy is difficult to achieve even with the two loop and two detector systems in common use. These two loop systems calculate speed using the following equation: ##EQU2## where, loop spacing=length of space between inductive loop sensors
This two loop method also contains several sources of possible error. First, the terms in the denominator, t.sub.VD2 and t.sub.VD1, are difficult to obtain accurately. In a scanning-type vehicle detector in which multiple inductive sensors (or "detector channels") are interrogated on a time-multiplexed basis, the actual time of vehicle entry is indeterminate by at least the length of time required to scan all of the detector channels. Similarly, the device receiving the vehicle detector's outputs will typically scan the outputs of multiple vehicle detectors. Further uncertainty results as the vehicle detector attempts to ascertain when the vehicle enters the second loop. Another source of error is vehicle bounce. Due to these sources of error, the best two loop speed measurement systems available today have a typical accuracy for any specific vehicle of plus or minus twenty percent when the vehicle being detected is travelling at freeway speeds.